Posts by secularsociety

Photo: Mark Condren In the celebration of today’s results, the Scottish Secular Society congratulates Ireland on today’s result after an incredible campaign for repeal, and hope it heralds a more compassionate healthcare system for Irish women. As the bishops and other reactionaries repeated apocalyptic ramblings of “murdered babies” and social collapse, the Irish people have turned their sympathies towards those who should not have needed to have fought for such a choice. Since the 40s the Catholic Church in Ireland has used women’s bodies and a denial of their autonomy as...

Source: This House Would Abolish State-Funded Faith Schools Original post by Patrick Mackie George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh have a school debating society which, from time to time, invites guest speakers to debate a motion. The Scottish Secular Society were asked to put up a speaker to propose the motion, “This house would abolish state-funded faith schools“, and I offered to act as proposer. The speaker for the opposition was Barbara Coupar, from the Scottish Catholic Education Service. The full text of Patrick’s opening speech and closing remarks can be found at the link below:...

Source: Does Denominational School Provision in Scotland Match Religious Affiliation? Original post by Patrick Mackie The usual rules of such questions apply; the answer is, of course, no. I’d better begin, by stating yet again that my beef is not against any particular church, or Christianity, or religion per se; this post drills a bit deeper into the information I’ve dug out since being asked to speak at a school debate on the motion “This house would abolish state-funded faith schools”. (Read...

Kevin McKenna was correct in arguing that having denominational schools are not a right of religions; he was wrong in arguing that we should seek to establish more faith schools in Scotland to compensate for the over-provision of Catholic schools. Love, compassion and human dignity are not the exclusive preserve of religions and do not require the provision of faith schools for young people to learn them. These are obvious components of an inclusive and civilised society. The Scotland of 2018 is not the Scotland of 1918. Religious affiliation is falling, and is crashing among young people. ...